ception of the goods when landed; but at St. Blas, the only warehouse is situated in the town, at a considerable distance from the landing-place, and upon the top of a very steep hill; whereby much delay, inconvenience, and loss, is unavoidably occasioned. The damage to fine goods; the breakage of glass and crockery; and the leakage in spirits and wine, in discharging, carrying inland, warehousing, unstowing, carrying back again to the beach, and re-shipping, in the event of reexportation, independent of the expence incurred in mule hire and labour, amounts, upon each cargo, to a very large sum. Nor is this all: the magazines themselves are infested by a species of white ant, called el comajen, which attacks every thing, and destroys, in an incredibly short time, whatever it does attack. All these disadvantages, combined with a difference in the mode of levying the Derecho de Internacion, which is exacted upon all goods at San Blas, (whether sent into the Interior, or not,) at the expiration of a term of ninety days, and an additional duty of two and a half per cent, (under the name of Ăvĕrīă) paid upon the exportation of Specie, have nearly destroyed the trade of San Blas, which, at one time, had acquired considerable importance. Merchant vessels, latterly, have proceeded, almost uniformly, to Măzătlān and Gūāymăs, where, from there being no Government establishments, the warehousing of goods, and even the payment of duties at all, have not been very
